Kennedy Boys Soccer

Gabe Christianson heading to NIU

DES MOINES - Kennedy junior soccer player Gabe Christianson said he will graduate two trimesters early and enroll in college, meaning his high school soccer career ended after the Cougars' 5-1 loss to West Des Moines Valley on Thursday in the first round of the boys state tournament.

“I will be going to Northern Illinois University,” Christianson said. “I am really excited about it.”

Christianson was second on the team with 15 goals and led the team with 26 assists in his only season in the Kennedy green and gold.

Christianson is planning on studying business at Northern Illinois and he said that the academics at Northern Illinois played a big role in his decision.

“I felt it was a great fit, both soccer-wise and academically,” he said. “They have a great business program, I would love to go into the business school. It just feels like home.”

Gabe’s older brother, senior Garet Christianson, has signed to play at Eastern Illinois.

“It should be pretty fun,” Gabe said. “We will be playing each other and get a little brotherly rivalry going."

Valley flattens Kennedy at state

DES MOINES - The Kennedy boys soccer team ran into a buzzsaw Thursday at the state tournament in No. 1 seeded West Des Moines Valley. The Tigers ran away with a 5-1 victory in the first round of the state tournament at the Cownie Soccer Complex.

“Defensively, we just didn’t mark people,” said co-coach Steve Robertson. “It was a problem when we went and played them the first time (2-1 loss in April), we had some issues with that, but after that point it looked like we had worked that out. It came back today. We let guys run free and when you let a good team like that run free they are going to score goals.”

The Cougars' defense allowed a couple of early goals to the Tigers and after they got put into that early hole, Valley was able to push the advantage and expand the lead as Kennedy was pushing to climb back into it.

“If you get down by a couple goals in the first 15 minutes, you are chasing the game the whole time,” Robertson said. “When you are chasing the game, you have to take risks and do things that you wouldn’t normally do, and when you do that, you open yourself up defensively for more goals.”

Junior Gabe Christianson scored the only goal of the game for Kennedy when he put in a rebound off of Garet Christianson’s shot.

Robertson said he was disappointed with how the season ended, but thinks that Kennedy should be proud of it’s season.

“Mike (Robertson) told the guys, ‘Listen, this is going to suck for a couple days and it should, but with the exception of four other teams in the state, everybody else would like to be us,” Robertson said, referring to his brother and co-coach.

Kennedy finished the season 14-6.

Cougars reach state tourney, aim higher

The No. 7 Kennedy boys soccer team was relatively subdued after its 1-0 victory over ninth-ranked Cedar Falls on Saturday at Kingston Stadium, especially considering that the win put Kennedy into the state tournament for the second year in a row.

Perhaps the Cougars (14-5) were subdued because they were recovering from a hard fought game against a conference foe. Or maybe it was because they have bigger goals yet to accomplish this season.

“It is something that we have wanted since the beginning of the season,” said junior midfielder Gabe Christianson. “Our (ultimate) goal is to win state so we are that much closer.”

The Cougars didn’t waste much time celebrating, but instead began to focus on the next step towards obtaining that state championship.

“Now that we have gotten down there, the task is to win that first night,” said co-coach Steve Robertson. “We need to win that first night and come back ready to play two more games.”

The Cougars are seeded eighth in the state tournament. They play top-seeded West Des Moines Valley (20-1) in a first-round state tournament game June 2 at 5 p.m. at Cownie Park in Des Moines. Kennedy was beaten by Valley, 2-1, on April 15 in their only meeting of the season.

Kennedy got to state by beating talented Cedar Falls (13-5) in a hard-fought and physical game, indicative of what was at stake for both teams.

“They came out as hard as we did and we were both battling,” Christianson said. “It got a little bit out of hand as the refs let us play a little bit. In the second half it sort of calmed back down and we played a little more soccer the rest of the way. I felt it was a really good game and we were fortunate to come out on top.”

The physical play was part of the Tigers' strategy to keep the fast, skilled players from Kennedy at bay. Kennedy had beaten Cedar Falls, 4-0, during the regular season.

“It was obvious that they decided to come in and play physically and try to take away some of our skills by playing physical man-to-man defense,” Robertson said. “That always works a little bit but in the end we were able to get that one opportunity and put it away.”

The goal came at last in the 64th minute when Gabe Christianson found his brother Garet in the box about 10 yards out from goal. Garet juked a defender and fired a shot into the side netting.

“I saw a defender coming in so I chipped it back and I ended up in a little scrap for the ball with a couple defenders, tackled through a couple of them and I saw my brother coming in back side, so I hit it back side,” Gabe Christianson said. “He did some good work, he dribbled a defender and put it in the side net which was sweet.”

Kennedy 1, Cedar Falls 0
Goals -- Kennedy: Garet Christianson. Assists -- Kennedy: Gabe Christianson.

Cougars blow past Marshalltown in substate

The Kennedy boys soccer team is moving on to the Class 3A substate finals on Saturday after topping Marshalltown, 2-0, on Wednesday at Kingston Stadium.

The semifinal game was played in heavy winds of between 20 and 25 mph.

“We played going against a heavy, heavy wind,” Kennedy co-coach Steven Robertson said. “Obviously, that is really tough to play well in, especially a team like us that likes to possess the ball and knock it around. The nice thing is we were able to do that, keep possession and keep them from attacking us when they had the wind at their back.”

The Cougars managed to stay on the attack through much of the first half despite going into the stiff winds.

Their possession paid off in the 18th minute when sophomore Cam Milks ran onto an errant header by a Marshalltown defender at the top of the box and buried it into the net.

“It was crucial to get that goal in the first half,” Robertson said. “It makes it tough for them knowing that they had to go into a 20-25 mile and hour wind all second half.”

With the wind at their backs,the Cougars got an insurance goal after Gabe Christianson drew a penalty in the box after he made a nice hustle play to take the ball from the last defender, who in turn fouled him as he was trying to regain possession. Gabe’s brother, Garet, took the penalty kick for the Cougars and buried it into the lower left-hand corner of the goal.

The No. 7 Cougars (13-5) advance to face ninth-ranked Cedar Falls (13-4) on Saturday at noon at Kingston Stadium. The Tigers advanced to the substate final
after beating Prairie, 1-0, in a penalty-kick shootout Wednesday night.

Kennedy beat Cedar Falls, 4-0, on May 13. Garet and Gabe Christianson each scored two goal apiece in that game.

Kennedy 2, Marshalltown 0
Goals – Kennedy: Cam Milks (18th min), Garet Christianson (57th min). Assists – None